stuck on me...and my charred flesh

So, sometimes I can be not too smart.

I'll admit it, I make some really dumb moves sometimes.

Sad, but true, it happens to the everybody once in a while. Ya do something and right away you realize "I really should not have done that."

I had one of these moments yesterday.

Let me back up a bit.

Last Saturday we had our yummy-in-the-tummy Thanksgiving dinner while my parents were visiting. (pictures still to come on this, I promise, lest ye wait around with baited breath--wait a minute, what the heck does that mean? Cuz I was around some tackle recently in a shop and I certainly wouldn't want that bait anywhere close enough to my mouth to cause baited breath of all things. Sistah, please, grab a tic tac.) Anyway, turkey dinner.

All went fine except I very quietly very painfully very accidentally burned my forearm while I was taking the biscuits off a hot-out-of-the-oven cookie sheet. It hurt and I recoiled and I considered for about 30 straight minutes putting ice on it...but, I didn't. See, the last time I burned myself badly, I tried that. But putting ice on it only made it 1,000,000,000,000,000 times more painful when I took the ice off. So this time, I just suffered in silence and went about my evening. It hurt, but oh well, life goes on.

The next day, it hardly hurt at all. I had a three inch long burn mark, but a nice layer of new skin had already built up over the seared flesh and I was on the road to recovery.

Until.

Yesterday.

I was helping a friend move some heavy boxes around and mistakenly rubbed it against my burn taking the top new fresh layer of skin off.

This is not the big mistake I made. Well, yes, it was a mistake--no one would purposefully do such a thing, right? But this isn't the mistake for which I am now paying dearly.

No, the mistake comes in when I asked for a bandage. And then proceeded to put the bandage long-wise down the length of my burn, instead of width-wise just over the part that had rubbed off. See, in my head I was thinking, "Aimers, if you only cover the part that got rubbed off, the rest will come off with the next box you carry in. Cover the whole thing so it is protected."

That part of my brain has been fired. Let go. Downsized. Demoted. Sacked.

Cuz within seconds of sticking that nice new very adhesive bandage straight over my fresh burn, I realized, "Oh. That was stupid." Cuz now, the bandaid itself was stuck to my wound.

My options were to either leave it on for weeks until it came off (along with my skin?) naturally on it's own. Or. To pry it off little by little (along with my skin?) so as to let the wound heal and breathe and get better.

Sigh.

So, for the next 6 hours I contemplated what to do. Run the bandaid under water, figuring it would fall off as all my other bandaids do when I want them to stay on? Rub baby oil all over it in the hopes the oil would permeate and sink through the bandaid and unlodge itself softly and easily, freeing my sensitive skin from almost certain moments of torture? Crisco? Pam? Vaseline?

I tried variations of all of the above. Let me tell you, nothing worked. Nothing budged that bandage even in the slightest. I need to talk to my friend and find out what kind they were, because dang. 'Stuck on me' is right.

And right painful.

So millimeter by millimeter, I peeled that sucker off last night. My 9 year old was next to me, I think in as much pain as I was just from the watching. He actually said prayers for me (how cute is that?). I almost passed out from holding my breath while I did it.

In the end, ow. Ow ow ow ow ow. About half of my new skin came off with it. And left behind is a very fresh very sensitive burn AND NOW the irritation left on my skin by the bandage. I really hoping that's what it is, and not infection, because my arm does not look good.

Wanna see?

It's not like oozing or anything.

Any more.



OK, I'm probably exaggerating a wee bit. (Me? no!) But it hurts!!



And I wanted you all to know, my friends, my neighbors, my family, my readers: don't do what I did. Leave your burns clear and free and for the love of all green-colored-jello do not put a bandage directly over it.

That is all.